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There is a lot of thought that goes into marrying a city. I mean, do you get along? Do you have the same taste in art and music? But most importantly, will you still excite each other day in and day out for as long as you both shall live?

One moment, I was in Spain, strolling the Passeig de Gracia, eating tapas and sipping red wine. The next, I was singing for Justin Bieber. Perhaps it was jet lag. Perhaps it was the parade of superheroes that casually strolled by me as I donned my Marie Antoinette wig. Either way, it was the most surreal evening of my life.

As Toronto continues its rapid growth, the limitations of travel by car are becoming ever more apparent. Average commute times have increased to 33 minutes as the city's main arteries struggle to keep up with the more than 1.1 million (2011) vehicles on city roads each day. While the rhetoric around change has been positive, action has been achingly slow.

I've wondered what to do about Canada's literary scene for some time. If you follow literary events closely, you'll see a lot of white faces on the lineups and in the promotions. In a multicultural country like Canada, that kind of oversight is a significant problem publishing professionals and festival organizers can't afford to ignore.

Simply put, sports has a way of connecting people. When you throw on your team colours, you're no longer a Sikh, Jew, Christian, White, or Black. You're simply a fan. And the only thing that matters in that moment is realizing the dream of seeing your team lift up the trophy one day and host a parade on your home streets.

It's a real life fairytale moment in Toronto, an eligible and undeniably handsome prince will be visiting our fair city. For the first time in 25 years, the dashing Prince Harry will be in Toronto on May 2 to launch the countdown for the third Invictus Games, held in September 2017.

Dear Toronto City Councillor: You and your colleagues in City Council will soon decide the future of Uber in Toronto. Before making up your mind to ban a service that represents an emerging economic reality, I urge you to consider regulation -- and to consider it quickly.

This bar encourages women to alert bar staff if their dates make them feel unsafe or if they receive unwanted attention from other customers. The sign posted in the women's washroom reads: "Your safety and happiness is our highest priority." Not surprisingly, support for this policy has reverberated across the Atlantic.

Did Prince write Musicology here? Or Xpectation or N.E.W.S.? If you have the almost $13-million price tag on hand, you can share in the space of creative genius. He had to have written and been inspired in this Bridle Path home, as Prince was a voracious writing force that produced albums almost annually and also wrote hits for others. In fact, I think we can expect a huge library of his unreleased hits in the coming years.

Extending maternity/parental leave to 18 months doesn't actually solve the problem. It's a ninja turtle Band-Aid that looks cool and will make us feel better until it's peeled off and we are faced with the same bloody daycare crisis. In 2008 UNICEF declared Canada tied for the worst child care out of the world's 25 richest countries. Since then costs have only gone up and access has only gone down. There are available spaces for only one out of every five Canadian kids. It's clearly high time for Canada to build on Quebec's lead and develop a universal child care program that extends across the country just like universal health care, social security and education already do.

About Toronto

Toronto is Canada's largest city and the capital of Ontario, with more than 2.5 million people in the city proper and 5 million in the wider metropolitan area. It's considered the centre of Canada's banking and financial industry and one of the world's most multicultural cities, with more than 140 languages and dialects spoken within its border. Just over 30 per cent of Toronto residents speak a language other than English or French at home.
The city was established as the town of York in 1793 by Governor John Graves Simcoe and was incorporated as Toronto in 1834.
It's home to a vibrant arts and culture scene, the Toronto International Film Festival, NXNE, the AGO, one of the largest gay pride festivals in the world and four major league sports teams: The Toronto Blue Jays, the Toronto Argonauts, the Toronto Raptors and the Toronto Maple Leafs.